Iron oxides have found a large number of applications in fields ranging from biomedical to space science. Amongst all iron oxides, the most favored is Fe
3
O
4
owing to high saturation magnetization, ...biocompatibility, and cost-effectiveness. The Fe
3
O
4
has an inverse spinel structure with colors ranging from dark brown to black. In this research paper, the Fe
3
O
4
and Co-doped Fe
3
O
4
nanoparticles were synthesized by co-precipitate method. The X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), EDX and RAMAN spectroscopy analysis confirm the formation of synthesized nanoparticles. From UV visible, the optical properties are studied and it is found that after doping of Co, the band gap had increased, and the electrical property of doped Fe
3
O
4
goes towards the dielectric behavior. From the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), magnetic properties are studied. By Gouy’s balance susceptibility was determined and values calculated, are in good agreement with the susceptibility calculated by VSM. The temperature-dependent conductivity was assessed using the four-probe method. The degradation of dye like methyl orange with the synthesized nanomaterials was studied.
This study presents the synthesis and comprehensive characterization of Fe
3
Se
4
and Fe
7
Se
8
nanoparticles using various techniques. The synthesis utilized the solid-state reaction technique, ...followed by thorough characterization using X-ray diffraction analysis to determine structural parameters like crystallite size and lattice constant. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy revealed granular formations with average particle sizes of approximately 147, 189, and 222 for Fe
3
Se
4
, 4c-Fe
7
Se
8,
and 3c-Fe
7
Se
8
nanoparticles, respectively. Thermogravimetric Analysis demonstrated the thermal stability of the materials up to 304, 386, and 384 °C, with subsequent weight losses for Fe
3
Se
4
, 4c-Fe
7
Se
8,
and 3c-Fe
7
Se
8
nanoparticles. Dielectric spectroscopy tests across a broad frequency range revealed non-Debye-type responses, indicating complex relaxation phenomena. A thorough analysis of dielectric characterization is comprehensively presented in this paper.
This study explores the potential of synthesized Fe3Se4 nanoparticles by solid-state reaction method and it's photocatalytic application. The structural parameters validated by X-ray diffraction ...(XRD) demonstrate a monoclinic structure. The particle size of the prepared material was estimated at approximately 95 nm, as observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and it's composition was verified by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Strong Raman modes were observed at 225 cm−1 which is responsible for lattice vibration in Fe3Se4. Both Fe2+ and Fe3+ oxidation states were present in Fe3Se4, as characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). From the thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) curves, the Fe3Se4 was confirmed to be stable up to 295 °C. vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) tests revealed that the coercivity was 151 Oe at ambient temperature and increased 20 times to 2425 Oe at 15 K. Tauc's plot indicated an optical band gap value of 1.12 eV. Fe3Se4 nanoparticles achieved an 80.79 % dye degradation efficiency and exhibited photocatalytic activity against methylene blue dye. In photocatalysis, the apparent pseudo-first-order k1 and pseudo-second-order k2 rate constants are 0.018 min−1 and 0.058 min−1.
Here in this work, the optical and elastic properties of Fe3Se4 were studied through the density functional theory (DFT) approach using the first-principles calculations. Independent–particle ...approximation method (IPA) is used to study the optical properties of Fe3Se4. The refractive index, electron energy loss spectrum, reflectivity, and absorption coefficient of Fe3Se4 were evaluated through optical properties. From the graph of the dielectric function, the dielectric constant of Fe3Se4 comes out to be very high which shows that Fe3Se4 behaves as a metallic material. Along with this, the elastic constant of Fe3Se4 was estimated by the stress–strain method. The elastic moduli of the triclinic structure were calculated by the Reuss-Voigt-Hill method. With the help of the 13 independent constants Cij, elastic properties like all the modulus B (Bulk), G (Shear), and E (Young’s) of Fe3Se4, along with Poisson’s ratio ν and anisotropy elastic AU, were determined. From B/G ratio calculations, it was concluded that Fe3Se4 behaves as a brittle material when no pressure is applied, and when a pressure of 20 GPa or higher than that is applied, it shows a ductile nature.
Brassica carinata
A. Braun (Ethiopian mustard) is an oilseed crop belonging to rapeseed-mustard group, with extensive food and industrial applications. It produces high quality oil ideal for aviation ...fuel, bio-jet for aircrafts and bio-diesel for airport vehicles besides its use as edible oil. In an attempt to analyze population structure and genetic diversity in a panel of 78 Ethiopian mustard accessions, 212 SSR markers had been employed. A total of 139 (65.57%) SSRs resulted into polymorphic amplicons, while 73 (34.43%) SSRs amplified monomorphic products. The allele number ranged from 1–7 with 3.03 average number of alleles per marker. PIC values were in the range of 0.02–0.53 with an average PIC value of 0.29 per marker. Gene diversity ranged from 0.02 to 0.50 with an average value of 0.37 per SSR marker. Overall, lower PIC values and gene diversity values indicated the presence of lesser genetic diversity among
B. carinata
genotypes. The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic average (UPGMA)-based dendrogram divided all the 78 accessions into two major groups, whereas, three subpopulations/subgroups were predicted by population STRUCTURE analysis. Further, this study provided a deeper insight into the population structure and genetic diversity of Ethiopian mustard in India and will help to improvise the breeding strategies for its genetic improvement.
Background & objectives: India has been reporting the cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) since January 30, 2020. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) formulated and established ...laboratory surveillance for COVID-19. In this study, an analysis of the surveillance data was done to describe the testing performance and descriptive epidemiology of COVID-19 cases by time, place and person.
Methods: The data were extracted from January 22 to April 30, 2020. The frequencies of testing performance were described over time and by place. We described cases by time (epidemic curve by date of specimen collection; seven-day moving average), place (area map) and person (attack rate by age, sex and contact status), and trends were represented along with public health measures and events.
Results: Between January 22 and April 30, 2020, a total of 1,021,518 individuals were tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Testing increased from about 250 individuals per day in the beginning of March to 50,000 specimens per day by the end of April 2020. Overall, 40,184 (3.9%) tests were reported positive. The proportion of positive cases was highest among symptomatic and asymptomatic contacts, 2-3-fold higher than among those with severe acute respiratory infection, or those with an international travel history or healthcare workers. The attack rate (per million) by age was highest among those aged 50-69 yr (63.3) and was lowest among those under 10 yr (6.1). The attack rate was higher among males (41.6) than females (24.3). The secondary attack rate was 6.0 per cent. Overall, 99.0 per cent of 736 districts reported testing and 71.1 per cent reported COVID-19 cases.
Interpretation & conclusions: The coverage and frequency of ICMR's laboratory surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 improved over time. COVID-19 was reported from most parts of India, and the attack rate was more among men and the elderly and common among close contacts. Analysis of the data indicates that for further insight, additional surveillance tools and strategies at the national and sub-national levels are needed.
The peritumoral vasogenic edema (PVE) in brain tumors exhibits varied characteristics. Brain metastasis (BM) and meningioma barely have tumor cells in PVE, while glioblastoma (GB) show tumor cell ...infiltration in most subjects. The purpose of this study was to investigate the PVE of these three pathologies using radiomics features in FLAIR images, with the hypothesis that the tumor cells might influence textural variation. Ex vivo experimentation of radiomics analysis of T1‐weighted images of the culture medium with and without suspended tumor cells was also attempted to infer the possible influence of increasing tumor cells on radiomics features. This retrospective study involved magnetic resonance (MR) images acquired using a 3.0‐T MR machine from 83 patients with 48 GB, 21 BM, and 14 meningioma. The 93 radiomics features were extracted from each subject's PVE mask from three pathologies using T1‐dynamic contrast‐enhanced MR imaging. Statistically significant (< 0.05, independent samples T‐test) features were considered. Features maps were also computed for qualitative investigation. The same was carried out for T1‐weighted cell line images but group comparison was carried out using one‐way analysis of variance. Further, a random forest (RF)‐based machine learning model was designed to classify the PVE of GB and BM. Texture‐based variations, especially higher nonuniformity values, were observed in the PVE of GB. No significance was observed between BM and meningioma PVE. In cell line images, the culture medium had higher nonuniformity and was considerably reduced with increasing cell densities in four features. The RF model implemented with highly significant features provided improved area under the curve results. The possible infiltrative tumor cells in the PVE of the GB are likely influencing the texture values and are higher in comparison with BM PVE and may be of value in the differentiation of solitary metastasis from GB. However, the robustness of the features needs to be investigated with a larger cohort and across different scanners in the future.
Brain metastasis (BM) and meningioma barely have tumor cells in PVE, while glioblastoma (GB) show tumor cell infiltration in most subjects. The purpose of this study was to investigate the PVE of these three pathologies using radiomics features in FLAIR images, with the hypothesis that the tumor cells might influence textural variation.
Small interfering RNA (siRNA) is a novel therapeutic modality that benefits from nanoparticle mediated delivery. The most clinically advanced siRNA-containing nanoparticles are polymer-coated ...supramolecular assemblies of siRNA and lipids (lipid nanoparticles or LNPs), which protect the siRNA from nucleases, modulate pharmacokinetics of the siRNA, and enable selective delivery of siRNA to target cells. Understanding the mechanisms of assembly and delivery of such systems is complicated by the complexity of the dynamic supramolecular assembly as well as by its subsequent interactions with the biological milieu. We have developed an ex vivo method that provides insight into how LNPs behave when contacted with biological fluids. Pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE) NMR was used to directly measure the kinetics of poly(ethylene) glycol (PEG) shedding from siRNA encapsulated LNPs in rat serum. The method represents a molecularly specific, real-time, quantitative, and label-free way to monitor the behavior of a nanoparticle surface coating. We believe that this method has broad implications in gaining mechanistic insights into how nanoparticle-based drug delivery vehicles behave in biofluids and is versatile enough to be applied to a diversity of systems.
Breath alcohol analyser is used to detect alcohol content in end-expiratory breaths in order to enforce driving regulations under the influence of alcohol legislation. The accuracy and reliability of ...the routine measurements of alcohol content performed with breath alcohol analyser can be achieved by the calibration of the breath alcohol analyser using standards traceable to SI reference material. Proper calibration is essential for transparency in legal verification for which reference material is needed. At international level, a number of NMIs are active to address this important measurement issue of providing accurate measurements. Several international key comparison programs have been organized so far for the determination of ethanol content in aqueous and in nitrogen/air matrix. NIST, USA; BAM, Germany; IRMM, Belgium, Portugal, INMETRO, Brazil, LGC, UK etc. have developed certain reference materials of ethanol in water solution/air with different concentration ranges. However, no such reference material is introduced in India as an indigenous standard, rather, being procured from abroad or using high purity alcohol for calibration purposes. CSIR-NPL, India, being the NMI is now focusing on establishing the calibration facility and development of SI traceable aqueous alcohol standard to provide test reliability for the testing in breath alcohol analyser. This program has a societal impact which contributes to human health and regulatory needs for the nation.
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